Hello, dear WordPress blog, I know I’ve been neglecting you lately, but, to be perfectly honest, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Tumblr. Yes, I know, everyone says she’s so easy, but she’s really great, honest, and always attracts such an interesting crowd. You’d like her too, I promise.

Last week, an early morning electrical fire at Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary burned down the rehabilitation building, destroying the entire structure and killing over 200 parrots and other exotic birds. After the initial scramble to provide veterinary care and housing for the remaining birds, the frazzled team then had to handle the incoming donations (mostly cages and supplies) while caring for the hundreds of parrots still squawking away in the rest of the facility. A call for volunteers was made, and as I don’t start the new job (more on that later) until Tuesday, I spent the last couple days onsite.

The rehab building, after the fire. The tragedy is that many of the birds housed here were those with special needs, abusive pasts, and disabilities, birds that many of the staff had spent much of their time with to make their lives better. The team was crushed by the experience.

The donation and volunteer staging area. Members of the local community arrived throughout the day, delivering blankets, cages, and supplies.

Joe, a frequent volunteer at Gilcrease, powerwashes donated cages. Once the cages were clean and ready to go, many became an immediate home, while the remainders were set aside for future inhabitants.

Over the years, many of the damaged cages were collected in the back of the lot. Harold (another volunteer) and I spent an afternoon organizing them, separating salvageable cages from those that were too far gone to use.

Factoid: the Gilcrease land and surrounding area houses one of the largest known mammoth fossil sites, twice the density of the La Brea Tar Pits.

This is my bowl! Aside from hauling cages (and gaining a swell farmer’s tan), I got to meet (and clean up after) a whole group of amazing parrots.

You can’t have my bowl!

Jackie the raven, found and raised by a couple of construction workers and now living at the sanctuary, does that weird thing with her head again.

Babygirl wouldn’t sit still for her photo opportunity.

RescuePigeontopia!

It’s a trap! Macaws sit overhead in one of the flight aviaries. Tread carefully, here.

Another macaw eyes me warily (and I, her) as I clean her cage. I’m accustomed to African Greys… Macaw beaks are huge.

Cockatoos are like little babies. Cuddly, loud, maniacal little babies.

As one of the staff stated, out of the fire rises the phoenix, and, using a recently acquired grant, Gilcrease plans to rebuild much of the facility, using modern materials and installing sprinkler systems in all the buildings. The sanctuary will reopen to the public with a planned remembrance ceremony and arts festival on April 24th and 25th, 9:30am – 5:00pm.

“The night before I left Las Vegas, I walked out in the desert to look at the moon. There was a jeweled city on the horizon, spires rising in the night, but the jewels were diadems of electric and the spires were the neon of signs ten stories high.” – Norman Mailer

So you’ve just visited, or maybe you’re looking at one of the jobs we’ve got listed at Jet Set, and you wonder… how is life on a daily basis out there in Las Vegas, what is it like to actually live in the city? As most tourists rarely travel beyond the gilded embrace of the Strip, it’s a valid question. Let me tell you about our town.

If you come from back east, or another continent, chances are that your house has been around longer. While Las Vegas was originally founded (and soon abandoned) in the 1850s by Mormon missionaries, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that folks started moving in — first with the railroad, then the building of Hoover Dam, legalized gambling, and the military. These days, the oldest homes, mostly in the heart of downtown, tend to be from the 1940’s, while the majority of dwellings hail from the building booms of the last several decades.

Fun Fact: Remnants of the Old Mormon Fort still exist, you can visit it at Heritage Park, located in Cashman Field just north of the Strip.

Right then, so there’s your quick history lesson. What about Las Vegas now? What does Las Vegas have to offer you?

Let’s begin with a big one: there’s no state income tax in Nevada. Right off the bat you’ve given yourself a raise. Not a bad start, eh?

It’s also a good time to get a house, cheap. Yeah okay, that’s the case in a lot of places, but it’s especially true here. We had ourselves a serious housing bubble and the industry went bananas on home construction for a few years, and as a result there are some great finds to be had. There are also plenty of nice apartments, and local rent is very reasonable.

Despite the summer heat, we’ve got a fantastic outdoor scene. There’s year-round hiking in Mount Charleston, and Red Rock and Valley of Fire are beautiful in the spring and fall. Both the Las Vegas Ski Resort and Lake Mead are less than 45 minutes away, and Zion and Brian Head are within a three hour drive.

Fun Fact: There is a WWII-era bomber viewable locally by those with enough dedication to reach it. A B-29 was ditched in 1948, and still sits at the bottom of Lake Mead.

Thanks to the casino industry, we’ve found ourselves with some spectacular shows and concerts. Several Broadway productions have played for a time, or call Las Vegas home. Cirque du Soleil is a Las Vegas staple. The local music scene is strong, and national acts are always passing through.

We’re one of the best cities in the country to find someplace good to eat, with a huge variety of both celebrity chef and mom ‘n pop establishments in the valley. A lot of the high end restaurants are within the resorts, but there are plenty of stunning eateries off-Strip, too.

Las Vegas has a burgeoning art scene. We’ve got a lot of galleries (including a new one founded by our own Brett Sperry), and some amazing local collections. A chunk of downtown has become known as the 18b Arts District, and every month it transforms into a lively night-time art festival known as First Friday.

You’ll find sports here, too. There’s the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with NASCAR, touring events, and local opportunities for drag racing and autocross. Our ECHL hockey team, the Las Vegas Wranglers, is one of the strongest in the league, and UNLV’s Division I teams always put on a good show.

For the particularly geek-friendly, we’ve got Tim Arnold’s Pinball Hall of Fame, a huge (and playable) collection of pinball and arcade machines, the Atomic Testing Museum, the Hoover Dam internals Tour, CineVegas (one of the fastest growing film festivals in the world) and one of the best comic book shops on this side of the country. Additionally, CES, DICE Summit, Defcon, Classic Gaming Expo, and the Evo Championships all take in Las Vegas.

Fun Fact: It’s pronounced Nevada.

I’ve just skimmed the surface, but that should be enough to keep ya covered for a bit, so let’s call this post done. Wanna know anything else about living in Las Vegas? Ask away!